Eva Longoria Open to Working with White House on Latino Community Initiatives: 'I'm a Patriot'

WASHINGTON – Actress and activist Eva Longoria said she’s open to working with the Trump administration on economic initiatives helping the Hispanic community in the U.S.

Longoria, who endorsed Hillary Clinton for president in 2016 and has been critical of Trump, was asked what she thinks is the greatest challenge facing the Hispanic community at this time.

“For me and my foundation, it’s building the infrastructure of opportunity, so that means education, that means entrepreneurship, that means job seeking, job preparation. Economy and jobs and economic mobility is really what the key is to our unlocking the potential of our community,” Longoria said after participating in a panel discussion at Fortune Magazine’s Most Powerful Women Summit.

The mission of Longoria’s foundation is “to help Latinas build better futures for themselves and their families through education and entrepreneurship. By providing Latinas with the resources to succeed in school and business, we can help empower the Latino community.”

The unemployment rate for hispanics is at a record low. Longoria was asked if she is concerned that new policies under a potentially different administration in 2021 could hinder economic growth for Latinos.

“Every election cycle, every different administration implements what their idea of opportunity for certain communities looks like and unfortunately those policies don’t have effect until — there’s a lag in that effect and so you never know what is working and what is not until there’s a new administration,” Longoria replied. “It’s definitely difficult to navigate into having a metric system on and that’s why I think that we have to continue to work towards creating some sort of stability in that economic growth.”

When asked if she would like to work with the Trump administration on initiatives related to the hispanic community, Longoria said, “I’m always open to helping my country be the best that it can be because I’m a patriot.”